Introduction. on orientation -- Skepticism and the struggle over finitude: Stanley Cavell -- The anxiety of theory: Hölderlin's poetology as skeptical syndrome -- Friedrich Hölderlin, "Blödigkeit," "das nächste Beste," "Andenken" -- Calls for communion: Hölderlin's late poetry -- Malevolent intimacies: Rilke and skeptical vulnerability -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonette an Orpheus (excerpts) -- Figuring finitude: Rilke's sonnets to orpheus -- Epilogue. "Desperate conversation"; poetic finitude in Paul Celan and after.
